What is Bird’s Eye Rhyolite?

Found in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, this stone is a beautiful product of volcanism and alteration, a spherulitic rhyolite. Unlike the Ocean Jasper, this rhyolite has not been completely silicified, and instead displays the spherulites in shades of browns and reds. One thing that we like is that this stone was extracted from our friend’s mine, so we know the source!

Under the Microscope

The resulting spherulitic pattern of the rock looks incredible under the microscope.  It reveals two distinct domains within the rock. In transmitted, cross-polarized light, the spherulites are beautiful shades of golds and browns with deep red highlights from iron oxides (Amazon Warrior design). The glassy groundmass on the other hand is midnight black highlighted by white & gray orbitals of quartz and randomly placed hematite jewels (Volcanic Universe design).

In the rarely used technique of reflected, cross-polarized light, an ephemeral glow from alteration creates a dream-like appearance. The iron-oxides again expose multiple textures within the spherulites (Bird’s Eye Dream design). There is so much going on in these rocks!

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